Soup, soup, soup!  A cup of soup to warm up my my soul! What’s the soup of the day? Hmmm….Nothing beats a bowl of warm soup!

When we have days where the outside temperature is only 21 degrees, all I crave is soup.  The kind of soup that soothes the soul and warms you up, you can feel the warmth of the soup all the way into your bones. 

I’ve made several batches of this soup and each batch was better then the last. I’ve tried it green split peas, with and without the lima beans. It all turns out great!  My first batch just did not want to cook, for I totally forgot to soak the split peas in water several hours earlier, over night works better.

Yes I mentioned lima beans also known as butter beans, its one of those beans we neglect and forget.  It looks like a kidney beans, but its green and all these wonderful vitamins and minerals that are good for our body.  Check out wiki lima bean for more information.

YELLOW SPLIT PEA & LIMA BEAN SOUP

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of yellow split pea (soaked in two cups of water)
• 1/2 cup of frozen lima beans
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 stalks of celery chopped
• 2 carrots peeled & chopped
• 2 tablespoons  of olive oil
• pinch of mint
• salt & black pepper for seasoning
• 5 cups of water (add an extra cup of you want the soup to be a more runny)
• Lemon juice & mint OR yogurt for garnish

Preparation:

1. Soak the yellow split peas in 2 cups of water, either from the night before or several hours before you make the soup.  I soaked it in water 3 hours earlier and worked great.  If you don’t soak the peas earlier, it will take several hours for the soup to cook and you will add more water then the recipe called for. Drain the water before cooking.
2. In deep cooking pot, add in the olive oil, chopped onion, celery, carrots, split peas, lima beans and water. Stir everything together then adding the salt, black pepper and mint and stir to mix in the ingredients.
3. Bring to a simmer at a medium heat and let the soup continue to 35 to 40 minutes.  Until all the vegetables have softened and split peas begins to look like mush.  Turn of the heat and let cool for 10  minutes.
4. Once the soup has cooled, puree with a hand held blender or in a blender or food processor until smooth.
5. Ladle into serving dishes, garnish with lemon juice and mint for flavor or serve with a spoon of yogurt on top.

Note: Adjust the salt as per your taste buds.  Yellow split pea can be substitute with green split pea as well.  Lima beans can be found at your local supermarkets frozen foods section.

Tags: butter beans, carrots, lima beans, onions, yellow split pea soup